When an oil or gas drilling rig is drilling a well, geologists employ a human “mudlogger” to go to the well site and provide analysis of the cutting samples and well gases being produced. From the cutting samples and well gases, the geologists can identify the depths (zones) where the oil and/or gas are located.
The cutting samples are currently gathered by the mudlogger by placing a cup under the end of the flow line, which generally is a 8″-12″ wide pipe going from the drilling rig to a set of mud pits. The mudlogger then hand carries these samples 30 or more yards to the mudlogger's trailer where the samples are prepared/labeled for analysis, after which the mudlogger returns to the end of the flow line to collect the next set of samples.
As the efficiency of new diamond-based drilling bits has increased drilling speeds, the difficulty of the mudlogger's job of collecting cutting samples has also increased. For example, in the early 2000's, the geologists typically requested that samples be collected for every 5′-10′ of drilling; however, due to the increased drilling speeds, a mudlogger currently has a difficult time just collecting samples for every 30′ of drilling.